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Eric Jardine (CIGI): The Dark Web Dilemma: Tor, Anonymity and Online Policing. What happens when you reduce the cost of being an asshole? This is the basic problem with Twitter — it’s too damn big and too damn easy to use. How to tame an Internet troll: Frank Pasquale reviewsReading the Comments: Likers, Haters, and Manipulators at the Bottom of the Web by Joseph M. Reagle and This Is Why We Can't Have Nice Things: Mapping the Relationship between Online Trolling and Mainstream Culture by Whitney Phillips. In the battle of Internet mobs vs. the law, the Internet mobs have won. In 2015, the dark forces of the Internet became a counterculture. Casey Newton on the search for the killer bot: Bots are here, they’re learning — and in 2016, they might eat the web. Welcome to hell: Nilay Patel on Apple vs. Google vs. Facebook and the slow death of the web. Google and Facebook are our frenemy — beware.

Moria Paz (Stanford): The Law of Walls. “No one but himself to blame”: Spencer Ackerman on how Obama’s Guantanamo plans fell through. Dan Froomkin and Jenna McLaughlin on how FBI vs. Apple establishes a new phase of the crypto wars. Most software already has a “golden key” backdoor: The system update. The billion-dollar Supreme Court Justice: Antonin Scalia was worth billions of dollars to corporate America, if a Dow Chemical settlement made public is any indication. Laurence H. Tribe on the Scalia myth. Dean at University of Texas resigns in part over handgun law. Haeyoun Park, Josh Keller, and Josh Williams on the faces of American power, nearly as white as the Oscar nominees. The Revenant author has a day job: Michael Punke is the United States ambassador to the World Trade Organization, a role that is seriously limiting his celebrity.

Lee Drutman on clouds, clocks, and the unexpected rise of Donald Trump. The governing cancer of our time: Donald Trump’s candidacy is the culmination of 30 years of antipolitics. Federico Finchelstein and Pablo Piccato on how Donald Trump may be showing us the future of right-wing politics. The conservative movement has become the GOP establishment — now what? Donald Trump doesn’t represent conservatism, but he does represent conservatives. In Iowa, fans chant “Trump! Trump!” at racially diverse high school basketball team. What differentiates Trump supporters from other Republicans? Ethnocentrism. Michael A. Cohen on how GOP voters want to be lied to: “Rather than recognizing that their demands could never be met, rather than seeking out a candidate who could moderate conservative positions to get into office and affect the change so deeply desired, GOP voters sought out a politician who lies to them at even greater levels. Enter Donald Trump”.

Where is Republican billionaire “kingmaker” Sheldon Adelson? Beset with legal troubles, the casino magnate and Republican powerbroker seems to be holding back, despite acquiring Nevada’s most influential newspaper. Sheldon Adelson and the missing $100 million: The casino mogul, the biggest donor of 2012, is withholding his big checks, puzzling Republicans. Mega-donors shy away from fight with Trump: Fearful of counterattacks, rich conservatives and their allies are mostly holding their fire. David Frum on the twilight of the Super PAC: The campaign groups are enriching the people who run them — but are they helping anyone else? You can downloadTaxation Only with Representation: The Conservative Conscience and Campaign Finance Reform by Richard W. Painter (“This book is the first comprehensive discussion of corruption in campaign finance from the viewpoint of a political conservative”.)

Donald Trump, crony capitalist: Despite fierce anti-big-business sentiment among many Republican voters, no candidate has emerged to champion them. Matt Taibbi on how America made Donald Trump unstoppable: He’s no ordinary con man — he’s way above average and the American political system is his easiest mark ever. The people Donald Trump allegedly ripped off through Trump University look a lot like Trump voters. Lynn Stuart Parramore on how America became the love child of Kim Kardashian and Donald Trump.

Grant Ramsey (KU Leuven): Can Altruism Be Unified? Judith Lichtenberg on Peter Singer’s extremely altruistic heirs: Forty years after it was written, “Famine, Affluence, and Morality” has spawned a radical new movement. Thomas Nagel reviewsThe Most Good You Can Do: How Effective Altruism is Changing Ideas about Living Ethically by Peter Singer and Doing Good Better: How Effective Altruism Can Help You Make a Difference by William MacAskill. Can “effective altruism” really change the world? We must transform the world, not simply make choices that appear to be rational within the current global order. Generous people are happier and healthier, yet acts of kindness are often met with suspicion and scorn — why? These are the charities where your money will do the most good. Andres Gomez Emilsson on how ending suffering is the most important cause. You’ll never guess the most charitable nation in the world.